CMC said...Kenoo said...
Almost all mass produced boards are made from EPS and despite whether they say it or not, leaving them in the sun will overtime (if not sooner) damage the board, same goes for paddles, especially foam core ones. In the end you just have to look after them, I wouldn't leave anything that cost $1000-$2000 in the sun for a long time unless it was specifically designed to be "permanently" in the sun.
As Bomberbrown says, stretch bags can work pretty well, they don't tend to build up the heat in the same way as padded bags, although they don't pad as well either.
While this is true I would suggest to you that there is a difference between some EPS boards and others, hand lammed, vacuumed, veneered etc.
The difference in the EPS comes from the way it is produced, some cut from a big block which means that the beads are not fused very well and there is a lot of air between them.. More air to expand, lesser integrity, more delam.
Other boards have pressure moulded EPS Cores that are near on 100% air tight. You can suck them and not get any air from the unglassed core, if they are dinged they will suck very little water. They are stronger, easier to machine and shape.
The weaker EPS is still fine to use but depends upon the skill of the glasser to make the board have strength and durability. Bad glassing, weak blank = Bad quality.
CMC when was the last time that you visited an EPS block manufacturing plant in AUS?
I was picking up a block from mine just before xmas.
They showed me their newest machine, and told me after my asking that most plants in Aus now have this machine to mould big blocks.
The walls on this machine are 600mm thick and that the new process uses vacuum to draw the steam into the block almost instantly for nearly complete fusion.
Rather than the old method of thin walled web braced aluminium boxes that used pressure to inject steam. The only problem with this method happened when too much bead was inserted to make the denser foams, middle to light weight foams were always ok and have been for over 10 years.
If you supply EPS foam to the building industry in Aus as most EPS manufacturers do then you have to build your foam to comply to a code of practice.
The test for this code is that you have to have a litre of foam immersed in water for 12 months. When the foam is retrieved it is then weighed and must have absorbed less than 1% of its weight in water to pass the code of practice.
Does this sound like a weaker eps foam with non fused beads leaving large air gaps between the beads so that water can be absorbed.
I now have dings open, not repaired to test for water absorbsion. I weigh my boards regularly and have found no weight gain. This is using my AUS EPS foam suppliers block foam.
There is a little water gain but only localised to the fracture zone form the ding impact. You can tell if a little water has been absorbed as it leaks out again.
I leave my boards on top of my car in all weather conditions so that I know what is going to happen to them.
I never suggested that owners do the same.
My small shed faces north with a hedge on the northern fence to block the wind, the sun beats down onto the concrete drive that I park on all year round. I have never had any problems with my boards in the 6 years that I have been at this adress.
If you tent your bag in between the tie downs this will reduce but not eliminate the melting problem caused by bags.
If the bottom of your board is not completely white on white, but has logos, colour or some form of graphic then you could have a problem with prolonged sun exposure.
I wont even go into the innuendo of that general statement about bad glassig weak blank.
